As
part of the Virtual Los Angeles project, the Urban Simulation Team @ UCLA
is building a real-time virtual reality model of the entire Los Angeles
basin. The team has completed models of various Los Angeles regions including
Downtown, Exposition Park, the Pico Union district, Mid-Wilshire, Westwood, UCLA, Santa
Monica, Hollywood, MacArthur Park, Playa Vista, and a portion of South
Central. Negotiations are currently underway for other areas of the city.

The Downtown
portion of the model has been under construction for fifteen years and currently
covers over 200 city blocks. The computer file for this one area of Los
Angeles is over 400 megabytes in size, including the geometry and over
6,000 individual texture maps. When completed, the entire Virtual Los
Angeles model will cover an area well in excess of 10,000 square miles
and will elegantly scale from satellite images to street level views accurate
enough to allow the signs in the shop windows and the graffiti on the
walls to be legible. The finished downtown model is estimated to exceed 1 terabyte in size and will be maintained on a large multi-client server that will
allow multiple simulation clients to seamlessly fly, drive and/or walk
through the Virtual L.A. Model simultaneously.

Beyond urban
planning applications, the possible uses of the model are endless. For
example, the team has been in discussions with Metropolitan Transportation
Authority about using the model to plan security efforts in the subway
system. Other discussions with the City of Los Angeles have focused on
the feasibility of using the model in conjunction with Global Positional
System (GPS) transponders to accurately locate and remotely manage Emergency
Response Vehicles in real-time.